A war veteran is going to Singapore next month to mark the 60th anniversary of Victory in Japan (VJ) Day and is hoping to meet an old friend.

Former Royal Navy signalman, Syd Sowden, 78, of Leyland, will go on September 7 with son, Antony, 31, for a ten day trip, largely funded by the Heroes Return lottery grant for veterans, spouses, widows and carers.

Mr Sowden raised the flag at the Raffles Hotel, the country's mecca for international travellers, to announce the end of the war just a month after Japanese forces surrendered on August 15, 1945.

This will be his first visit since then, and he will go back to Raffles, and also visit the former prisoner of war camp, Changi Jail, now a museum.

Mr Sowden joined the navy in 1943, serving on HMS Sussex.

He remembers the time Japanese Army General, Itagaki Seishiro, was brought aboard the ship when he formally surrendered forces in Singapore on September 4, 1945.

"They brought the prisoners on the ship and we opened our lockers so they could choose some things. It was funny because even though they had shaved heads they all went for our Brylcream," said the retired cabinet maker.

"That night I was sent to Raffles with another young signalman to raise the Union flag and signal the end of the war in that area."

He is hoping one prisoner of war he met on that day, Frank Warren, will be at the reunion in Singapore next month.

"I know it's unlikely but I'd like to see him," he said.

"We kept in touch but then he moved and we lost contact. His last letter came from Brixton."

During the Second World War the Royal Navy lost 1,525 vessels, including 224 large warships, with more than 50,000 naval personnel killed. He said: "There were kamikazes everywhere. It's amazing we didn't get hit."

Mr Sowden, who also travelled to Sri Lanka and Bermuda on HMS Corunna and HMS Malabar, left the Royal Navy in 1952 after a fall from the deck of HMS Triumph in 1952 left him paralysed.

He moved to Leyland twelve years ago.